


Random Domestic Scenes

by car_yl



Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Fluff and Mush, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26449654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/car_yl/pseuds/car_yl
Summary: Two vignettes take place in Murphy's house while she's laid up after SG - Pre- PT; one scene features a Thomas POV, the other features Mattel's most famous doll.
Relationships: Harry Dresden/Karrin Murphy
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	1. Scene 1

**Author's Note:**

> Borrowing characters that belong to and were created by Jim Butcher, and the universe they live in.
> 
> This began with an idea about a 'dueling guitars' with Karrin's ex but it morphed. Expect more sometime in the future.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas POV - dinner with Harry and a recovering Karrin

I used my key to let myself in. I felt it was only fair since I was bringing the food. Harry had given me an amulet to let me past the wards, just as with the old place. I wasn’t particularly quiet about my entry but Harry hadn’t heard me. He was sitting with his back toward the door playing a lively piece on the guitar I’d bought him while he was living on Demonreach waiting for his ‘parasite’ to be removed. -And a darling little parasite Bonea is too, despite the fact that she’s also potentially quite terrifying. Hey, I’m her uncle. I’m allowed my prejudices.-

“What’s that called?” Karrin called from direction of the bathroom.

“It’s a piece I’m working on for you mom’s birthday,” Harry called back. “It’s called Banish Misfortune.” 

“Wishful thinking?” I asked. Harry didn’t exactly jump but he did stiffen noticeably. Well, I noticed. 

“Thomas,” he gritted his teeth just a little. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Just long enough to notice how much your playing has improved.” I figured a compliment might soften the fact that he’d let his guard slip. Of course, with Murphy’s threshold and Harry’s wards there weren’t half a dozen living beings on the planet that could have gotten through the door without alerting either Harry or Karrin. Still, Harry’s default reaction to fear is either anger or sarcasm. A compliment would throw a monkey wrench in either of those reactions. I grinned widely at his glower, which was fading into a more neutral expression even now.

“Hi Thomas,” Karrin yelled. “Okay Harry, I’m done.”

Harry set the guitar aside and went to the bathroom. After a few moments he carried Karrin into the living room, her head wrapped in a towel. She was wearing a fluffy robe over what appeared to be a long flannel nightgown. -I don’t know how that worked because her left arm is still in a cast, but the length covered the cast on her leg nicely.- He placed her down onto the still warm spot on the couch he’d been occupying a few moments before and she placed a chaste little kiss upon his cheek. The look on his face- I thought he’d melt right on the spot for a split second. Yeah, I could see things were going well. I was sure that that kiss would have been R-rated if I hadn’t been there.

“What’d you bring us?” asked Karrin, eyeing the bags I was still holding. 

“For you my lady,” I said in my faux french accent, “Chicken cordon bleu, asparagus and pomme dauphin. For the eh-hem gentlemen, pomme frites, steak diane, which the chef was horrified to make to-go, and a ceasar salad.”

“Steak and french fries!” Harry was rubbing his hands together in anticipation, “Is there dessert?” 

“Mock cherries jubilee,” I said pointing to the insulated bag I hadn’t begun to pull from.

“Mock?” Karrin quizzed lifting an eyebrow.

“Which one of us do you want to trust to flambe’ the cherries and brandy?” I returned. 

“I see your point,” she said glancing at Harry.

“Hey,” he protested, with a handful of fries almost to his lips.

I winked at Karrin. She smirked at me and Harry pouted for half a second before popping the fries into his mouth and heading to the kitchen to get silverware and napkins.

I spread out the to go containers and pulled up a chair. When Harry returned with the silverware he was also balancing glassware. I helped him dole it out before he dropped something.

“Beer or Coke?” He asked.

“Philistine,” I teased. “No wine?”

“No wine, as you well know.” He said, “Unless you brought your own.”

Which, of course, I had. A robust young Cabernet Sauvignon, which Karrin looked at with longing.

Harry returned with a bottle of something from Mac’s for him and a coke for Karrin. 

“No mixing alcohol and pain killers.” She answered my unasked question.

I nodded and decided to change the subject. “That’s a nice piece you were playing when I came in, quite intricate fingering. Is he driving you as crazy as he did me when he was trying to perfect House of the Rising Sun?”

“No, he’s not here enough yet to drive me crazy with any of his bad habits.” She said in a bland tone.

“Yet?” Harry looked away from his steak, tilting his head a little looking at Karrin with a sidelong glance.

“Don’t count your chickens, Harry.” Karrin said with a hint of tartness but, she was smirking too.

He sighed, long and deep. Then he shook his head, “What will I tell your mother?” Karrin threw an asparagus spear at his head. He caught it! AND ate it! Harry ate a cooked, green vegetable. Wonder of wonders.

“I’d like to hear the whole piece when you’ve done eating, Harry.” My interest was piqued.

“Sure, I guess,” he shrugged with one shoulder while slicing off a bite of steak.

“Maybe, if we ask very nicely,” Karrin said, reaching over to stroke his knee, the only part of him she could easily reach, “he’ll play one of the sets he’s worked out to help me fall asleep.” 

Harry reached over, taking her hand and kissing her folded fingers, “For you Karrin, anything.” I was beginning to feel like a third wheel, but my idiot brother actually saved the day by asking, “Where’s Justine tonight?”

“Working,” I huffed. “I swear Lara finds reasons to keep her at the mansion deliberately.”

“You don’t look like you’re starving,” Karrin opined. I stuck my tongue out at her and we all laughed.

After the “Cherries Jubilee” Harry gave us a mini concert consisting of 6 very well rendered songs. By the time it ended Karrin was beginning to nod. The painkillers were sending her to dreamland. Harry took her to the bedroom and took his sweet time coming back. When he did come back his glance was turned down and there was a sly, satisfied smile on his very red, slightly puffy lips. When he looked up at me, he blushed a lovely shade of pink. 

It was my turn to watch over Karrin tonight. It’s not safe to leave a wounded warrior alone under the influence of narcotics. But Harry had just gotten custody of Maggie. He needed to get back to the apartment in Svartalveheim. 

As he was putting on his coat I just had to ask, “So, little brother, when did you get so good on the 6 string?”

“I had a lot of time to fill on the island, even after Parkour, rebuilding the structures and,” he shuddered, “cataloging the inmates. So I played. What did you think I was doing with all those charts I asked you to bring me?”

I shrugged lazily, “Reading charts and practicing enough to get that good are two different things. Besides, I didn’t bring you any Irish jigs or anything from this century and you just played two Irish songs, a piece by the Goo Goo Dolls and a piece by Leonard Cohen. I never brought you any of those.”

“Well, the Irish pieces are new. For Karrin’s mom, for her birthday. It’s a Murphy family tradition to do a little talent show since Marion doesn’t want a lot of stuff type gifts. Last year Karrin and I gave her a coupon for an evening of ballroom dancing and dinner. But then I was forced to demonstrate my skill at dancing so the brothers were assured I wasn’t going to crush their mom. So this year, …”

“Ah, over and done, demonstration and gift in one. I got it. But what about the other stuff?” He had his coat on now, his staff in his hand.

“You obviously recognized most of the pieces,” said Harry.

“Yeah, and?” Harry looked at me from under his lashes as if to say, “come on, Thomas, put it together.” The light went on. “Oh, love songs, all of them are love songs!” Harry nodded. “And that last one, What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” I paused, “Harry, you’re going to have to be more direct than that if you’re going to propose to Karrin. This gives her the chance to pretend she doesn’t get it. And you know she does.”

Harry grinned as sly a grin as I’d ever seen on him before. "I know,” he practically purred, “I’ve got a plan.”

My brother has a plan!? My jaw dropped, but Harry was already out the door, on his way to his little girl. “God,” I thought, “I hope this doesn’t end like most of his plans.” and bolted the door behind him.


	2. Of Barbie's and Ken's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry, Maggie and Mattel's two most famous dolls. Enough said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karrin Murphy POV - eavesdropping on Harry and Maggie playing dolls

I was a little nervous that Saturday, Maggie’s first weekend at my house. Harry was sleeping in my room- with me- in my bed- with Maggie in the house. Nothing was going to happen with 25 pounds of casts still on my shoulder and leg but still…. It was setting a precedent, a pattern for the future- the future, with Harry. That thought still made my heart beat a bit faster every time it appeared in my mind. Maggie is a part of that future. That’s just a fact.

Harry and Maggie had been in the guest room alone together for quite a while. I was getting around now but not well. Still curiosity got the better of me and I made my way over to the guest room door to see what was going on.

The door had been left ajar. I cracked it open just a little further, about an inch. What a sight. Harry was stretched out on his side, taking up most of the floor space, and holding a Ken doll while Maggie was dressing a Barbie in a big, puffy white dress.

“That’s not quite the dress for our particular bride, Maggie,” Harry said with a moue on his lips, that I really wanted to kiss, and his brows drawn together like he was giving this some real thought. Maggie looked up at him with a tilt of her head and an unspoken question on her face.

“There’s nothing wrong with the dress Maggie. And if you want something like that when you get married someday, after you turn 30 or so,…”

“Dad,” Maggie said with a giggle.

“…well, that will be your choice,” Harry continue with a teasing grin. “But this bride, she’s not into the frou frou stuff. And besides, I can assure you that her groom would like to see some leg as she comes to the altar.”

Maggie turned this utterance of, “Dad” into practically a groan. “You already decided against a tux,” she complained.

“Hey, you picked the couple and I know them well,” Harry averred. Maggie giggled again.

“Okay, which dress then?” she asked. Harry spread out the fairly extensive wardrobe Maggie had for her doll and chose a cocktail length number made of layers of sheer fabric that, had it been a full size garment would have been light weight and would have flowed around the knees. The doll dress was a pale blue and there was a wide neckline and a lot of open back. Again, had it been a human sized dress the neckline would have shown lots of collarbone but not much cleavage and the back would have been low enough to have allowed some skin contact while dancing.

“Something like this,” Harry said. 

“Well she still has to have a veil,” Maggie insisted.

“For today,” Harry allowed, “but I think she’d prefer just some flowers or a headband or something that kept her eyes clear. She is warrior, you know.” This was so cute. This huge guy playing dolls with his daughter. I was smiling a huge smile and thinking what a good dad Harry is.

“What kind of flowers in the bouquet, dad?” Maggie asked as she worked on getting the doll out of the white dress.

“Depends on the time of year, Maggie. Flowers have seasons you know. But I think Daisies and Asters or violets if it’s spring.”

“Why?” she asked, now putting the doll in the shorter, blue dress.

“Well,” Harry said in the mentor voice I’d heard him use with Molly, “both flowers are usually available most of the year. The daisies are our bride’s favorite, I’m told and- you know flowers have meaning, right?” Maggie nodded, putting a tiny faux bouquet in the doll’s hand. Harry continued, “See, daisies are really two flowers, the center is a cone flower and the petals are another flower. So two flowers in one; two lives joined together.”

“I like that, Dad. And the asters?” she asked looking up at him again from her cross legged pose by the bed.

“Asters mean love and wisdom and before you ask, violets symbolize loyalty, devotion and faithfulness.” 

“Oh Dad, it’s got to be violets.” Maggie said with a firm nod of her head and a little of her dad’s passion in her tone.

“Very well Miss Maggie, daisies and violets. I concur,” Harry too nodded but his was a quick, sharp acquiescence.

Maggie, finished by putting heels on the doll. Then she picked up a second Ken doll. This one had long hair. It vaguely resembled a certain White Court vampire of my acquaintance. “Okay, he can be the priest for now.” and Harry nodded as she passed him the second doll. “Now,” Maggie began to instruct, “the bride will come down the aisle…

“Nope,” Harry stopped her. “The priest will stand at the altar,” he handed the long haired Ken back to her, “and the bride and groom will both walk toward him from opposite sides.”

“Oh,” said Maggie with big eyes shining as if she’d just discovered something, “that’s why they don’t need bridesmaids or ushers or stuff.” Again, Harry nodded, “Cool dad,” she said. So she propped long haired Ken against a shoe and she and Harry ‘walked’ their dolls toward the pair of rolled up socks that was standing in for an altar. I so wished I could grab my phone. I’d risk it blowing up to capture this on video, and it might work with Harry that absorbed in something non magical. But I’d never be able to move fast enough to get it and get back before the moment was gone.

“Dearly beloved,” Maggie began…

“For today Maggie,” Harry interrupted again, “but definitely non-traditional vows if it were real life.” 

“What’s non-traditional vows mean?” Maggie asked.

“Means that instead of words that have been written a long time ago and said by millions of people, these two would choose words that were special to just them, words that not everybody else would say,” Harry informed her.

“Why?” Maggie asked with an adorable tilt of her head, her dark brown eyes so like her dad’s looking at his forehead.

Wow, she knew about soul gazes and how to avoid them, even with her own dad. No, I thought, especially with her dad. He’d have made sure she wouldn’t see his soul until she was much older, until she was able to understand some of what makes him what he is. He still fears she’ll be afraid of him. Well, that will happen at some point. Every parent frightens their child at one point or another. I’ll just have to be there to make sure he knows it’s fright and not terror.

“Because, they aren’t your typical bride and groom are they?” Harry asked.

“No, they’re not.” Maggie stated, nodding, “They are very special people.”

“Thank you,” Harry said with a bow of his head. I drew my brows together, puzzled. Who are these dolls supposed to be?

“Dearly Beloved,” Maggie said again, “We are here today to join together in- in-“ and she glanced toward her dad for help.

“Either wedlock or marriage, Maggie, your choice,” he supplied.

“-in wed- in marriage-“

“I like that better too,” Harry said, "sounds so much better than wedLOCK.” he emphasized the locked with a turning motion of the hand not holding the Ken doll, like a key in a lock. Then encouraged her to continue with a rolling gesture of the same hand.

“- these two people: Harry and Karrin…”

I gasped. Harry turned his head as far as he could toward the door, turning quite, quite red as he did so. A look on his face that seemed both embarrassed and perhaps a little guilty.

Maggie looked up, held the Barbie doll in my direction and said, “Oh good, Miss Karrin, you can be the bride.”

I wanted to ask Harry just how much thought he’d given to ‘our’ wedding, but I just made my way over to sit on the bed since getting on the floor was out of the question and took the doll.


End file.
